Elon Musk kills Twitter ‘official’ badge just hours after roll-out

Twitter’s ‘official’ badge which CEO Elon Musk introduced to identify prominent accounts alongside the $8-a-month blue verification check has been killed within hours of roll-out.

Twitter on Wednesday began adding the grey ‘official’ badge to accounts of some celebrities, publications, and public figures, beneath the blue check mark and in every tweet.

The ‘chaotic’ layout of the social media platform courted a lot of controversy among users, who also criticised the network for the ‘random’ manner in which it was giving the ‘official’ badge to prominent accounts.

But no sooner had the badge started being rolled out than it disappeared from the accounts, after which Musk tweeted to say he had actually killed it.

“I just killed it,” said Musk in response to a tweet by a public figure who had received – then lost – the grey badge, “Blue check will be the great leveler.”

In a separate tweet, the Twitter CEO said the platform will be trying various “dumb” things, some of which would be later dropped.

“Please note that Twitter will do lots of dumb things in coming months. We will keep what works & change what doesn’t,” said Musk.